By Maureen Schnitker.
(Request from Babara Rae-Venter form California USA) Click on the images to enlarge

Trying to find a particular grave in Stellawood Cemetery is not easy. The grave numbers which were once on a metal plate have been stolen a long time ago. We still find the odd metal grave number when we excavate vandalized gravestones which have been pushed over, luckily my son and his friends come with me on a Saturday afternoon to help me as some of these gravestones are very heavy. You just have to look on the website at those that are brown and sometimes broken to see how many we actually have to dig out.
Before I went to the Cemetery Eleanor Garvie sent me a copy of the Cemetery Block Book where the names appear so that I could see the names of the people buried on either side in case the grave did not have a gravestone, I then telephoned the Office to get an idea of where this section actually is. Cyril who works in the office and is of great help to me, knows the cemetery like the back of his hand, directed me from the X Block which we are working on at the moment , but I think when you know an area so well you perhaps miss a point or two so although we did get lost we knew more or less where it was, drove around until we saw the “W” marker. Had to scramble up a steep embankment to the top. Not being numbered you don't know at which end you are, the top or the bottom, so my son, a friend and I just looked at every gravestone and of course as Murphy's law would have it we were actually at the bottom end. After we had looked at all the gravestones and not found it we decided to look again more closely, it was at the top end. It is a small gravestone and the surname is not as pronounced as some of the others, my son actually found it and cleaned it, I just did the photographing.

Fortunately there was no embankment on this end so did not have to scramble down, sent my son to fetch the car and pick me up on that side, it was actually a lot closer to where we were working than where we started looking.

It gives me great pleasure to be able to help loved ones far away and unable to come to the cemetery themselves which I think apart from capturing the history this is one of the aims of the eggsa gravestone site. We are seeing so many gravestones which are being vandalized as is this one, the angel at the top is missing and is nowhere to be found. This grave has been bought outright so it will never be recycled.
We need to get the photographing of this cemetery done as quickly as we

can. The large gate on the left-hand side of the cemetery has been broken for who knows how long so vandals have easy access day and night and there is not a section that has been left untouched by them. So with recycling, weathering and vandals we never know how long this history will remain there.
The attached photo taken on 31 May 2014 is from left to right, me, Lyn Paul, Rose Mc Arthur and my son Henry Rudman, it appears in the Durban and Coastal latest newsletter.

This how Barbara's initial request read: "I am hoping you may be able to help.
Two of my Grant cousins, Thomas (died 1st August 1943) and James (died  5th March 1942) are buried in South Africa. I have copies of documents that suggest they are buried at Stellawood Cemetery."

Viv Clarke writes
I have been researching my family tree for many years and have a branch that moved to South Africa from England in the 1920's.  I recently found your marvellous site with photographs of memorial stones, one of which was for a Benjamin George COYNE who died in 1984.  I feel that he could be a family link and his age, 66 years, fits with his birth here in 1917-18.
I was excited to find this and wonder if you have any other recorded information about this man please? For example, his full name, who recorded his death, where he  was born, etc. in fact, anything which may help to prove the link. Only yesterday I telephoned a Mr Coyne from the SA White Pages and he is related too!  He would be the nephew of Benjamin Coyne.  All of a sudden I am finding all sorts of information.  Thank you so much for your help, I am delighted to have some evidence and contact with my South African links.
I still wonder what Benjamin Coyne's link with the Hierons family would be - unless Robina Frances Coyne's maiden name was Hierons??  Maybe my contact with Benjamin's nephew will reveal more?

Jimmy Boyce and his sister May searched for the grave of their father for years. Jimmy accessed the photographs on the eGGSA library and found a photograph that he thought could be that of his father. He immediately contacted May and they picked up the trail through the eGSSA and the GSSA. He sent an e-mail first to Alta of the eGGSA and then to Eleanor Garvie of the Durban an Coastal Branch of the GSSA. It was this branch that undertook the photographing of the Stellawood Cemetery. (Read the article below for more detail).

Jimmy writes:

We have been searching for my father's grave for years now and finally managed to find it thanks to your teams' efforts photographing the Stellawood cemetery gravestones. Just want you to know what a blessing your work is to us and so many more people out there. I was last there with my gran in 1987 when I still lived in Durban.

Just a little information on the grave so that you can have an idea of how important the work that you are doing is. My grandfather, Susara P de Lange Boyce, died while at work one rainy day at the railways. A train had accidentally backed up and squashed him between an empty trailer. He was still alive and the police took my grandmother to him to say goodbye. When they moved the train away he immediately died from his injuries. He was the buried where he currently is. The other side of the book headstone was meant for my gran one day when she was to pass away. My father, DJJ Boyce, died 24 Sept 1974 while my mother was still pregnant with me. I was born 17 Dec 1974. His cause of death was that he had epilepsy and fell and drowned in the Durban harbor when he had a fit while fishing there. My gran therefore opted to put her son next to his father and gave up her rightful space.

So, you can now understand a little how each of those headstones and grave sites have a story to tell with many people like me that still want to sit and see the grave sometimes, but are in another province or country, so cannot just drive up the road to see it. Your photos are therefore a blessing to us, as it helps us feel closer to our lost loved ones.
You and the team are forever in my debt for your kind assistance and information.”

Since the transcribing of the burial records of Stellawood was completed in 2011, the team which has undertaken to photograph the cemetery has been hard at work recording the headstones.

The project of photographing the headstones and any other memorial in the cemetery started in earnest one very hot December day in 2010. Alta Griffiths was down the South Coast on holiday and decided that she would join us on this venture. Altogether we were 18 eager photographers - however we did not realize that the task at hand was somewhat bigger than we thought. We are presently down to an attendance of about 8 photographers and would dearly love more people to consider joining the team. We have welcomed two new members this year; Rose McArthur and Gail Richards.

Stellawood Cemetery is just under a half square kilometre in size and if any of us thought we would finish photographing the cemetery in one day – we were certainly dreaming. Nevertheless, at each session the team embark on cleaning the headstones (as many are covered with lichen and other dirt) then dust and chalk those that lettering have faded before photographing can begin.